Designing our product and a poster for the product

In this weeks lesson we were given the time to design our new toy on illustrator and show how our toys worked. We were shown some new techniques on how to create 3D shapes and we could use this to show our audience our toy.

On our poster we had to show the toy and an example of what the toy could do, for my poster I decided to show the shapes that could be used to link to one another.

I showed a skeleton of the shape so the audience can have an idea of what the shapes would look like from all angles, it also gives off a building/ construction feel to the poster. I featured a logo for my toy that can be seen at the top right of my poster, that again featured a shape skeleton. I also included a image on how the shapes should be connected by using lines to show that the shapes can link up, I also made it obvious to the audience that there were magnets inside the toy, so they could understand how the shaped connect to each other. 

My demonstration of a already built model was of a man, I did this because it is quite easy to see and doesn't look half bad, this is good because if a customer was to see a constructed model and it did not look good then they would probably not want to buy the product. Having a already constructed model allows the customer to see what they can make with the tools they have been given.

Research for music indent

When it comes to my project I have to either record my own or find a musical indent. This indent has to relate to the topic that I will be talking about in my news story. 

I have had a looked at some radio indents from other companies like 'NBC' and 'BBC World' when it come to the NBC indent it was very basic it featured a piano that held its notes while it slowly went up the keyboard. This gave off quite a calm and relaxed vibe and if it was the indent they would play to start off their show in the morning like the video suggests they are definitely welcoming their audience in the right way. The BBC world used chimes that were probably from the Big Ben due to BBC meaning British Broadcast Corporation, I think that this was a very nice touch and definitely give the audience an indication that it is a British based company. This indent sounded like it was serious and that what you were going to hear after was very important and high status.

After looking at both of these indents I have gained an idea on what sort of indent I want to find for my project, I will try and go for a indent that is quite calm but does not sound too relaxing. My topic is based on the recent incident with a Viola Beach, and my of radio station is based around music. So I will have to make sure my indent fits nicely with both of these factors.

http://www.purple-planet.com/ The audio on this site has the potential to be the music used for my indent because my radio is focused on people who like music and the audio that is available is something that has quite a lot of soul packed into it.

Broadcast

History of Television

In the early 1920's the first mechanical television was invented and sold to the public by Charles Jenkins. June 25th 1951 was the date when the first mechanical television was released to the public. In May 1954 the fist all-electronic colour Television set was sold to the public. 1990 was the year where Hi-Def was introduced and 5 years later the Telecommunications Act replaced the old 1934 laws.

What is Ofcom?

Ofcom is a communication regulator that regulates; TV, Radio, Video on demand, telecoms, phones, postal services and the airwaves that wireless devices use.

An example of what they regulate

Ofcom sets down lots of rules that TV and Radio broadcasters have to follow to unsure that children are not subject to unsuitable content. One rule that the say broadcasters have to follow is that after 9PM content that maybe unsuitable for children can be shown. This is because this is the time when most young people go to bed and it allows broadcasters to still put up content that would be allowed to be aired if this rule was not put in place. Anything that children could copy; swears, violence and harmful behaviour is regulated, as you can see this is the same sort of thing that the ASA does to protect children.

Difference between print and broadcasts

When it comes to print and broadcasts, print is always the place you have to go to fro more information. This is because broadcasts are aimed towards everyone, so the language they use and the amount of topics covered has to be significantly reduced. However with print articles can go into much more detail and can use must more complex words, this is because people who decide to read article want to know what is going on and does not just want to find out the bits and pieces.

This is what one of the articles looks like on the telegraph, you can clearly see that their over view covers a lot of things that are only going to be cover more in-depth further on in the article. The language used is also very complex and more sophisticated. The whole article is about 800 words long and tell the reader almost everything that they might want to know. 

Difference between Radio and TV

Radio nowadays is something that people use to have on in the background when they are doing activities, they are less likely to but fully immersed in the content compared to TV. Another massive difference between them is that radio isn't visual, everything is all audio based, this means that when something is being happening in the studio, like a reaction to news has to be portrayed to the audience in the different way than it would with TV. Radio also allows the audience to use their imagination and imagine what may be happening in the studio so a more expansive vocabulary can be used.

Audio Equipment

In our last lesson after we had finished writing up our blog posts, we were set off to experiment with the different audio equipment provided by the college. I was quite unsure about what I wanted to do for my project, however as seen in my blog post I had the 60 second news report in mind. I decided to look at all of the different possibilities of audio when it came to using the equipment just in case I happened to change my mind and go for the Instagram video or the radio sitcom. 

I decided to stay around Issy due to her also not being quite sure on what to do either. We looked at the various different types of portable mics, listening back to the audio that we recorded using the; foley, boom and normal microphones. It was apparent that these mics would be great for use outside and if or project featured something that had to be recorded outside we knew the proper equipment to use and how to use it correctly. I also glanced at the audio recording equipment that the others were using and practicing with, it looked all very complected but from what I heard from the others the audio that was picked up sounded great. These types of mics would probably be ideal for my news report, so I will be sure to check them out the next time I get the chance.

Audio Equipment Testing

When it came to the recordings it sounded like the audio was best picked up when there wasn't a cover that protects the mic from the wind. The audio that we recorded inside came out the best in my opinion because it was clear to hear and there were not a lot of things that overpowered my voice. However it came out quite echo like and I think if I were to use the foley microphone I would use it in a room where noise cannot bounce. 

The foley mic with the protective cover and the boom mic made my voice sound a bit muffled and unclear, if I were to use it in my piece I would have to turn up the recorded audio to match the volume of everything else. If I had to choose between the both of them I would choose the boom mic for the shier reason that no wind was picked up on the microphone. 

Lastly I used the foley microphone without a cover, the result of this was quite a loud sound of the wind hitting the mic, if I were to use this in my project it would end up sounding very unprofessional and annoying to the audience.  

Designing my own toy & Looking at illusions

Todays lesson started off with Steve showing the class some classic optical illusions. To give us some inspiration for when it came to designing my construction toy.

Some of these illusions were very hard to get our heads around and some were impossible to replicate in real life. Some of the illusions we looked at included the; penrose triangle, Blivet and the impossible cube. We came to the conclusion that most of these illusions had a lot to do with angles and the positioning of the shapes and this was the reason why the shapes could not be replicated.

Later on in the lesson Steve introduced us to our next project, this project was about creating our own construction toy. Steve showed us some very famous toys from that past to give us an idea on what we could make for our toy. I decided to use shapes that could connect to one another through the use of magnets. We only had time to briefly thing about our idea but I was certain that was the way I was going to go when making my toy. 

Audio Production PT3

There are many different skills that I want to improve on and discover when working on my project. My chosen project is to produce a 60 second news report with a musical indent when working on this I hope to improve on using the equipment to a high standard. This includes the type of equipment I will be using and the distance away from the person talking, these are all very important things when it comes to using audio. I also hope to improve on using programs to edit my recorded audio, because this would help me in other areas in media, especially moving image.  

My project is going to be based on news that is relevant at the time of recording, to find out this I will have to go on a news website to find out some information on the news story. To make sure the audience can here me properly I will have to make sure that the equipment that I am using to record sounds clear and is not dominated by any sound in the background. When it comes to my musical indent I will have to ensure that the sound that is being recorded fits with the story that I am covering. I do not plan to have more than one character speaking in my piece, I will be the person speaking about the chosen topic. 

Dumb ways to die and Mac Vs PC Focus Group

Dumb ways to die
The 'Dumb ways to die' ad campaign began in November 2012 the campaign was started by a company called, 'Melbourne Metro Trains' and was made to spread awareness about being safe around trains. 

Instead of Melbourne going for a boring and depressing advertisement they decided to chose a more different approach. This ended up in the advert being more happy and colourful, it also included its own song that ended up hitting the charts. The advert spread the message to a lot of people, and because of its unique style children could watch the advert as well and understand what it is trying to get across. I think this was a very smart move by the company because children are more likely to not be careful around trains and injure themselves so having the advert changed from a gloomy style would have helped the children understand a whole lot more. There is barley any text in the whole advert this is so they song that is playing in the background can be focused on. The song had a narrative to it and talked about what not to do around trains.

An app was also made at a later date, this again telling the audience to be careful around trains. After every few games the player would have to promise that they would be sensible around trains. Toys and posters were also made about the character in the advert, the characters featured are the face of the campaign now because they are so memorable.

The campaign ended up doing its job, metro train noticed a 21% decrease in accidents and deaths around trains. This campaign ended up being very successful and is still talked about today.

'Mac Vs PC' Focus Group

A focus group is a group that has a discussion about a certain product or item. In our focus group we discussed and advert that was called, 'Mac VS PC'. We generated 5 questions that were based around the ad, most of the questions were very linear though. I thought that the advert was very plain and didn't really show off why the mac product was better than a PC. It only stated it, I mentioned this in our discussion very briefly. We do focus groups because it allows everyone to voice their opinions on something to others and maybe change other peoples opinions on that certain thing.

The questions we used for our discussion were:

1.  Do you use a mac or a pc?

2.  Do you find that the comedy in the ads makes the product look more appealing?

3. What have you learnt about macs or pc’s after watching the ads?

4. What are you more likely to buy?

5. Do the adverts change your opinion about what you prefer?